My SO and I have been having a lot of fun playing co-op games on the Steam Deck connected to the TV. We recently finished Split Fiction and I’m looking for the next cool experience to try out. We enjoy casual co-op games, nothing too hard or violent. EDIT: pixel art is apparently a big turnoff for her so that’s out as well.
Games We Enjoyed:
- Split Fiction
- It takes two
- Untitled Goose Game
Games that flopped:
- Stardew Valley - She is open to “farming” games but doesn’t enjoy the energy management aspect of the game. It also gave her motion sickness, somehow
- Overcooked / Moving out - We enjoy these games but as they start to get more chaotic and hard, the enjoyment goes way down
- Ibb & Obb - A bit dull and samey
- Portal - Gives me serious motion sickness, completely unplayable
- Lego Lord of the Rings - I’m a lord of the rings fan but I hated the gameplay for this game, I found it to be so boring. We quit after an hour or so.
Check out Kingdom Two Crowns. Absolutely brilliant
This one looks for me, actually :P
The whole series is great. But two Crowns is multi player. But, thinking, might only be split screen on one device?
I second this. I’ve played it with three mates now and they all loved it
If you’re open to doing emulation, there’s a multitude of Nintendo games that are amazing couch co-op.
I have RetroDeck set up but I’m honestly not into emulation. I do own a Nintendo Switch and we’ve played a couple of those. They’re fun but I’m not looking into supporting Nintendo for the time being.
That’s fair. But since you do have a Switch, I’d still recommend finding a used copy of Yoshi’s Crafted World if you haven’t played it.
Any suggestions?
- A Hat in Time
- Trine
- Spiritfarer
- The lego games
- Knights and bikes
- Human fall flat
- Cassette beasts
- Chariot
- Octodad
- Monaco
I don’t remember these being particularly violent but maybe are worth a look:
- Pit people
- BattleBlock Theater
I also liked Moon Hunters and Children of Morta but those are harder.
Divinity Original Sin 1 is also good but definitely falls into the violent category. Its kind of goofy too so it could be worth considering. The second game + BG3 are significantly more violent and serious so are harder to recommend with that criteria.
Edit: hmm it seems the formatting is funky in Voyager, should be fixed now
Dude, Octodad in the random arm-leg mode is so fucking funny. My wife and I had so much fun with that game. Too bad the game is so short!
Trine
I do own the first 2, I totally forget about this game. Definitely gonna give it a try.
Spiritfarer
I already played and loved SpiritFarer, it was an amazing journey. I don’t want to say too much but I just can’t repeat it any time soon.
The lego games
I forgot to mention in the original post that we did play the lord of the rings lego game and I really hated it. I found the gameplay so boring…
Knights And Bikes
This one looks intriguing, I’ll check it out!
Monaco
I do own Monaco, maybe i’ll give it a try!
Thanks!
… Genital Jousting.
A way out. Two criminals escaping prison, made by the Same studio as it takes two and split fiction. Full of mini games along the way like the other two and my god the story made me laugh with it’s ridiculousness. it’s definitely not as good as it takes two or split fiction but well worth a go imo
The steam deck status is unfortunately unsupported. Otherwise it would be a great fit.
In case you’re comfortable trying a couple things out it does work for some on steam deck. ProtonDB link
Tinkering is fine, I’ll definitely check it out. Thanks!
A Way Out is marked as “Playable” by Valve, mainly because of Origin (or EA App nowadays?) and some quirks with the controls. Should play just fine though and once in-game controllers should be well supported.
Me and the wife played a few coop games.
- DERU - The Art of Cooperation is a pretty puzzle game that is satisfying, not too difficult nor does it overstay its welcome.
- We also enjoyed the snake-esque puzzler OmoTomO. Only on itch, not Steam, so you have to install it via the desktop mode. When you’re willing to dig a bit itch grants you some shiny gold nuggets for cheap.
- In Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime you have to run around a spaceship to operate the different parts (engine, guns, shield). More straightforward than it sounds, and the pacing is such that you’re not rushed but do get some tense moments.
- Almost forgot Pode which is a very cute 3rd person puzzle adventure game.
Some games recommended by other people in the thread that we can corroborate
- Trine series is good platforming fun with pretty graphics and dialog that is a little on the nose sometimes.
- Kingdom: Two Crowns is good for a few hours at least, can’t say I cared about beating it because the levels just keep coming with only minor variations. Definitely a unique blend of tower defense and base building.
Personally I agree on Overcooked, once the novelty wears off it gets a bit frustrating because of the difficulty. Its still fun in groups though.
My wife and I were having fun doing co-op on the Trine games. Coordinating your character switches to cross obstacles can be pretty fun. The Lego Star Wars games were also fun for us both to just mess around and cause chaos.
Trine sounds like a great idea, I already have the first two. Gonna give it a go.
We tried the lego lord of the rings game but it fell flat for us.
Lego Star Wars are quite bad for motion sickness, I find.
If you don’t want something too serious, you can try
- Fling to the Finish
- Keywe.
Both are cute and kind of funny, doesn’t get too difficult as long as you don’t chase highscores.
Unrailed is less chaotic than overcooked, but can still get a little stressful as tasks pile up.
Also PlateUp!
Oh yeah KeyWe is great fun! Some levels took me and my partner two tries but it’s nothing too punishing. Highly recommended
Ballers gate 3? Pretty sure that runs on. Steam deck.
It’s verified
My gf is pretty new to video games but these are a few she enjoyed
Trine 2/3
Snippets
Castle crashers
Unravelled
Diablo 3
Children of morta - my gf also doesn’t really like pixel art but this turned out to be one of her favourite games
Keep talking and nobody explodes could be a fun one, only needs 1 device and the other player needs the manual which can be on a phone or printed out. You could even play it over a phone call.
You know I have like 4 manuals printed and only played it once? Gotta give it a try some time!!
A bunch of retro games have good couch co-op support & the steam deck can emulate pretty much all of them
Zombies ate my neighbors, smash TV, 2-d brawlers like TMNT turtles in time, double dragon, and streets of rage, Goldeneye, toejam and Earl, bubble bobble
Ship of Fools is -60% on steam right now and I can’t recommend this game enough. It’s a rogue lite where you both need to protect a ship from monsters maning the cannons and it’s an absolute blast! It has good progression and it’s intense but not in annoying sort of way.
It looks sick, definitely something I’d enjoy playing. Unfortunately I feel like it would fall under the same umbrella as Overcooked or Moving Out. Too chaotic, I think.
Its much more approachable and not nearly as frustrating or difficult as those. We finished the game while being stoned if that tells you anything lol
Unravel 2 :) It’s a beautiful little co-op game with lots of puzzle-y problems to solve and some dynamic ones as well
It went on sale yesterday so I ended up buying it!
Split Fiction is peak, gonna be hard to beat. Too bad you can’t do ‘a way out’ it’s very well done. Might want to look into tweaks for those “unsupported” games, as many of them work fine. Unraveled 2 is a good example.
Otherwise, If this is something that is really becoming your thing, it might be time to hook your PC to the TV or invest in a console. If you go console, you additionally open up the world of games that require individual screens (crossplay games-you on steam deck screen and them on TV screen, but still sitting together OR you on pc and them on TV if same room).
Our couch coop at some points was me with my laptop on a stack of books on the coffee table while she was on a ps4. Played Aragami this way, for one.
They may seem silly, but there are a slew of Lego games that people get really into and are very impressive. Human Fall Flat also has some silliness, but good puzzles at times
I don’t know why I didn’t remember this. I do have a decent PC and the streaming functionality works quite well. I played Path of Exile 2 this way and it was great. Thanks for reminding me!
